Dude's TEDx Talk Woulda SUCKEDx!

Do these 3 things so you don't bore people and make them want to fill a Super Soaker with truck stop toilet water and spray you in the face with it!

I'm at my cousin's place for some birthday party and this guy starts telling me about what he does. He's a scholar of some sort about some historical figure and he's about to give a TED Talk on it and some technical blah blah boring I'm falling asleep listening to him talk about it stuff.

This dude is a PhD so he's super smart but not at all funny, engaging, entertaining, etc. In about five minutes and one beer I was able to identify two spots where he could inject humor (hallelujah) -in his voice- and helped him reframe and reword one of the most complex but critical parts of his presentation.

His response, "This is so helpful! Thank you. You've totally helped me change my speech for the better. You're really good at this."

THING 1) Inject humor -in your voice-

Injecting humor is difficult for some people but it's very easy for other people. A friend of mine used to get paid $50,000 plus a steak dinner LITERALLY to punch up the jokes of TV pilots on set during filming. Humor is subjective, so the humor you inject must work for your voice and at least be appropriate for your audience. The best comedians in the world can't please everybody. My grandmother thought David Sedaris was dumb. I think he's beyond amazing. If you try to please everybody you'll probably please nobody. Injecting humor -in your voice- shields you from the criticism that your joke wasn't funny enough. It doesn't need to be the funniest thing in the world. If it's authentic humor in your voice, it will resonate for people, even if they don't laugh out loud.

THING 2) Reframe the complicated part

Come on, man! If it's super complicated you have to reframe it so people can understand what the heck you're talking about. Again, this is easy for some people and hard for others. You're probably up to your eyeballs in the weeds with your subject matter. You might not be the right person to reframe the complicated element. If that's the case, you need someone who understands your complex idea and can help you reframe it for your audience. You and your inner circle of colleagues probably understand Gigamatronic Psychology like a chef understands spices but if you're talking about GigaPsy with normal people, you need to take a big step back and clarify stuff. Package it in an accessible way - like the chef/spices metaphor, and then build off of that common ground.

THING 3) Reword until you know FOR SURE people will understand your message

Here's the hard truth - people are being too nice to you if they're not telling you your content is confusing. Or it's full of pointless platitudes. Get real, man. Your colleagues and friends and coworkers are all so wrapped up in their own stuff they don't have time to give you honest feedback on your work. Particularly if you're writing long-ass speeches or articles like this. It's so much easier and faster to say, "great job!" than it is to say, "I have no idea what you're talking about in the second paragraph." So, you need to read your piece, pretending you don't know the first thing about it. Like you're hearing it for the first time. Chances are you've built in some lingo or run-on sentences or you've packed in too many ideas into one chunk. Reword that stuff so it's without question accessible for a normal person.

There. Those are 3 things that, if you can do them, will make your speech, presentation, article, whatever, a whole heck of a lot better. Your audience will thank you.

For the first time in years I'm taking on new clients.

If you need memorable content, let's talk.

https://calendly.com/jasonlevinson/conversation

Now go out there and create something excellent!

Jason